By Monique Mahadeo

March 2013

Bismillah,

SubhanAllah, Confidential was an amazing class, as I’ve come to realize that all Al-Maghrib classes are amazing in their own ways. For this class, what I found so subhanAllah walhamdullilah waAllahu akbar-ish was the respect, decency and common courteousness that Muslims afforded one another and that were established in Surat’l-Nur. I read through the Surah only once before the class and I did not pay as much attention to the manners that this surah calls for. Because of this, I did not realize the amount of respect and rights Allah gives to women in this surah alone. Yes, Surat’l-Nur includes men (obviously), but Allah truly shows His regards for the protection of women, and Muslims in general through these amazing ayaat. He commands and warns those who refuse to protect the sanctity of a woman and her reputation, the sanctity of marriage (through fornication and adultery), the sanctity of privacy, the sanctity of His Messenger (peace be upon him), and most importantly, the sanctity of His mercy.

In today’s society, much of these protections have lost their values. A person’s word and character hold no weight, and much of the haram that Islam has fought to protect us against are now portrayed as permissible, hot, new trends. What Allah has made permissible for us is seen as “not cool enough”, “backwards”, “not progressive for the twenty-first century”, and the like. This encourages people to adapt and make Islam conform to Western ideals instead of taking from Western ideals only what conforms to Islamic teachings. But when something bad happens, our “twenty-first century”, “progressive” beliefs distort the “innocent until proven guilty” shared by the West. We are quick to pass judgement and condemn one another without all the facts. Sometimes our judgements are biased and based on feelings of hatred, anger, and a need to put people down. We are a society that is quick to expose people’s faults and mistakes, we look for the glitch in everyone’s morals and character, and we spread doubt with every breath like fire spreads with wind. Although we can see from Surat’l-Nur that this was somewhat prevalent in the society of the Prophet (peace be upon him), it is at an all-time high in our “advanced” society. So what do we do?

Allah gave us ayatin bayinnatin, or clear answers and proofs. He teaches us how to protect one another and tells us that if we stick to the promises we make as Muslims then He’s got us covered.

Yes, our society has greatly changed and our Ummah has become somewhat weaker but Allah Himself has not weakened, nor have His promises. Patience and du’a are our greatest weapons now. Although society, as a whole, does not follow the stipulations granted in Surat’l-Nur, the Muslim community is held to this standard — to protect all the sanctities of Islam against our modern diversions.